Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards’s statement about the video released Wednesday by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) prompted a response from the pro-life group that conducted the undercover investigation into the abortion giant’s practice of harvesting body parts of aborted babies to sell to biomedical companies.
In her video statement, Richards offered an apology for the tone of the comments made by medical director Dr. Deborah Nucatola, who discussed how to abort babies in a way that would allow the harvesting of their body parts while she munched on a salad and drank some wine.
“Our top priority is the compassionate care that we provide,” Richards said. “In the video, one of our staff members speaks in a way that does not reflect that compassion. This is unacceptable and I personally apologize for the staff member’s tone and statements.”
But Richards insisted that her organization only obtains “tissue donations” with the approval of the mothers of the unborn babies.
As Breitbart News also reported, fetal tissue donations are only legal if the provider does not charge for it. Nucatola, however, admitted Planned Parenthood is willing to make a profit on the harvesting of the aborted baby organs.
“They want to break even,” she says in the video. “And if they can do a little better than break even, and do so in a way that seems reasonable, they’re happy to do that.”
“Planned Parenthood President and CEO Cecile Richards offers a strained and obfuscating ‘apology’ for the admissions made on camera by Planned Parenthood’s Senior Director of Medical Services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, about Planned Parenthood’s harvesting and sale of aborted fetal hearts, lungs, and livers,” states CMP in its response.
The pro-life group observes that in the video CMP recorded several months ago, Richards praised Nucatola with the statement, “She’s amazing.”
“Today, Richards does not acknowledge Nucatola by name and refers to her only as a ‘staff member,’” CMP continues, noting there is no mention of whether the lead medical director has been fired or demoted in any way for her actions.
Richards “apologizes for Nucatola’s tone, but this is willful blindness to the real reason millions of Americans are outraged and at least 5 state governments and 2 Congressional Committees are now investigating” her abortion business, states CMP. “Did Richards not know about how Nucatola was overseeing Planned Parenthood’s abortion practice, or did she just not care until it became a public issue?”
Referring to Richards’s “apology” as just a “cynical and empty excuse,” for her organization’s “atrocities against humanity,” CMP calls upon Planned Parenthood to “hand over all contracts with StemExpress and other fetal harvesting companies to law enforcement and Congressional Committees.”